Former prosecutor in dispute with DA

San Diego  For more than a decade former San Diego County prosecutor Robert Phillips has researched and written a respected newsletter analyzing appellate court cases about criminal law issued by California state courts and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Police departments, judges and prosecutors around the state have relied on it, and over the years the publication has grown to a readership of about 4,500. But since this spring that readership has not included Phillips’s former colleagues in the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office.

Phillips, who retired in 2007 but still produces the “Legal Update” newsletter from his South Dakota home, said cutting out the office was payback for his support of a challenger to incumbent District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis in the June primary.

A Dumanis spokeswoman brushed off that accusation, and said Phillips’s newsletter isn’t distributed because office lawyers and investigators get similar information from other sources.

“We get those services through other means now,” said spokeswoman Tanya Sierra. “It’s not a political issue. It doesn’t have anything to do with that.”

Yet Phillips said the timing of when the newsletter was cut off is telling. He said for years the publication was emailed out to prosecutors and investigators with no complaints.

“Suddenly, as soon as I endorse someone, it doesn’t get sent out at all,” he said.

Phillips served as a prosecutor for 28 years, the last 13 as a prosecutor tasked with working directly with local police and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department on search warrants, criminal procedures and other matters.

He started writing up the newsletter during that time. When he retired in 2007 he said he had an agreement with Dumanis to continue writing the newsletter under the name of the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, in exchange for the office paying his subscription to access online legal research providers like Westlaw and Lexis.

He wasn’t paid for the work and asked that the office continue paying his annual dues to the State Bar. He sent a copy of each issue to the DAs office where it was distributed via the internal staff email system.

After a year the office stopped paying the annual dues, but Phillips said he did not complain about it then. Instead he continued to write the newsletter, producing a new issue roughly once a month.

Then in April Robert Brewer, a local attorney, contacted Phillips and asked for his endorsement. Phillips said Brewer — who got the endorsement of several prominent local law enforcement labor groups representing the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and San Diego Police Department among others— was aware of Phillips’s contacts in the law enforcement ranks because of the newsletter.

Phillips agreed because he decided it was time for new leadership in the prosecutor’s office. He wrote a brief note published in the April 12 edition supporting Brewer. (He’s also come out in support of a third candidate, former Deputy District Attorney Terri Wyatt, who is also challenging Dumanis).

Phillips said he expected some reaction from the office, but none came. It was not until November that he learned, via another prosecutor, that the newsletter had not been distributed to the office since April.